Vladimir MP Pavel Antov, who topped the ranking of the richest civil servants and deputies of Russia according to Forbes in 2019, died in India from internal injuries sustained as a result of a fall from the roof of the Sai International hotel, The Wall Street Journal writes, citing police data. Antov’s companion on a trip to India, Vladimir Bydanov, died of a heart attack in the same hotel two days before Antov’s death, said the investigator in charge of the case.
According to the publication, the men went on a 19-day tour along the coast of the Bay of Bengal and stopped in Rayagada district in the Indian state of Odisha in the east of the country. They were accompanied by a married couple whom Antov met a few years ago in the Caribbean. On a flight from Moscow to New Delhi, the men were issued a warning for disturbing other passengers with their drunkenness and hooliganism, according to the investigator leading the investigation.
The driver who drove the group notes that the men drank alcohol even on trips, and the couple demanded that Bydanov stop drinking. On the morning of December 22, Antov turned to the porter for urgent help, which Bydanov needed, he was sitting without signs of life near the sofa, surrounded by bottles, some of them were broken. An autopsy showed that Bydanov died of a heart attack on December 22, the investigator said.
The hotel staff said that after the death of his companion, Antov locked himself in his room without food or drink. He was last seen alive on December 24: a 65-year-old man waving his arms and heading to the roof of a three-story hotel. Some time later, his body was found below. According to police, Antov died from injuries sustained in a fall from a roof.
Antov turned 65 on December 22. He died as a result of “tragic circumstances,” Vyacheslav Kartukhin, deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly, wrote on his Telegram channel. The Vladimir TV channel Zebra TV called the second deceased Vladimir Bydanov, a 61-year-old businessman from Yoshkar-Ola and a friend of Antov. The Odisha State Police and the Consulate General do not see anything suspicious in the death of two Russians, Alexei Idamkin, Russian Consul General in Calcutta, told TASS.
Pavel Antov is the founder of the meat company “Vladimir Standard”. In 2019, he took first place in the ranking of the richest civil servants and deputies of Russia according to Forbes with an income of 9.97 billion rubles (for 2018). In 2020, Antov dropped to 26th place with a total family income of 558 million rubles.